No, it wasn't eating at Yoshinoya.
Although it was delicious . . .
Denis' dream was to see The Sharks, Shanghai's minor (really really minor) league basketball team.We decided that the "stadium" was a little more like a high school gym with a really good basketball program.
The process of getting tickets for the game was one of those "only in China" experiences. There were ticket scalpers hanging around the stadium like bees around a hive. We were accosted by more than a dozen, all attempting to sell us ridiculously over-priced tickets. There were some interesting aspects of their sale strategy:
More than four would surround us. Okay, I know this sounds normal, but it's the next part that is bizarre. One scalper would start at something like 120 kuai. Very quickly he would talk himself down to 100 and then 80 and then 70. Another one would approach, and offer his ticket at 120 kuai. No attempt to beat the other guy. Same product, higher price.
One at 120, one at 70. Oh, how will I ever make a decision?!
We set out to find the "offical" vendor of tickets, and found the ticketmaster box. Yes, there was a ticketmaster box. Even as we were buying tickets from the box, the scalpers were still putting in thier hardest sale. Even as we were walking away with our four offical tickets . . . still . . .
The other half of the hilarity for the evening was the game itself. Essentially the teams were composed of a bunch of men of Asian desecnt (makes sense) with a few men of African descent (also makes sense, but seems a little out of context given the circumstances).
The quality of the game playing wasn't that high. In fact, I saw some of the sloppiest, most inane plays. The highlight being that one guy actually slapped another guy in the face and stole the ball. The refs called him on it and then he had this look like, "Ah, man, I can't believe I got called for slapping!"
Overall, the night was a great laugh. I could see myself going again next season.
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